Sales are essentially a bloodstream of any business, whether you are in the B2B or B2C sector, whether you sell products or services. Judging the potential of a sales lead and having the ability to close deals fast is the key to generating revenue and ensuring continuous business growth. But if it was that easy, everyone would be doing this by now.
In the past decade, virtually every business sector has seen a shift in paradigm, where companies started to implement digital solutions to boost their sales. Every tool that enhances the performance of your sales reps is a valuable resource, but unfortunately, most tools that you can implement can only bring an incremental growth, and often it cannot even be seen in quarterly reports. What your business requires is a structured and aggregated system that can be easily implemented in one go.
Currently, there is no shortage of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms on the market that are specifically designed to increase the productivity of sales departments. However, while the surplus of products might be a little bit overwhelming, especially for small businesses, there is one that particularly stands out from the crowd in terms of functionality, usability, cost-effectiveness and even the name itself. Today we’ll take a look at the benefits of Sales Cloud and how it can empower your business.
What Is Sales Cloud Salesforce CRM?
Sales Cloud is CRM software by Salesforce, a leading provider of customer relationship management solutions in the world. The SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) platform was designed, as it can be deduced from the name, to support and boost sales, marketing as well as customer support in a business.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s take a look at what makes Sales Cloud the best available option and what it can offer.
Benefits of Sales Cloud Automation
Lead nurturing process
Today businesses generate vast amounts of data, and turning it into meaningful information is one of the biggest challenges that organizations are faced with. Traditionally this process required manual labor to cleanse, enter and filter data, but now, with smart CRM software, you can automate such tasks, giving your salespeople more time to focus on what they are good at – selling. Plus, automation practically nullifies the possibility of human error.
Another very important benefit of Salesforce CRM cloud automation is faster lead nurturing process. You can set up email and social media campaigns that will be executed on a trigger-event or designated time. It allows you to build up a meaningful relationship with your target audience in a more efficient manner.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
Now here’s the phrase that you hear quite often in the media nowadays. Unfortunately, it gained somewhat of a buzzword status and it is not taken too seriously by organizations. The truth is, the machine learning technology allows you to gain better insights from sales channels and to evaluate the effectiveness of your business strategy by analyzing past deals.
The technology, such as Einstein AI, available in Sales Cloud, lets you automate some core processes even further and streamline certain tasks to previously unimaginable speed. Furthermore, over time AI can prioritize the leads most likely to convert and close.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning technology haven’t reached the business mainstream yet, but it has already proven to be an invaluable resource for many top companies.
Go mobile
Not a buzzword, but a very obvious point that we simply could not overlook. Mobility became an essential part of every industry domain there is and its benefits are well-known. Your team can work from anywhere in the world, you can monitor the performance of your current operations on the go, and so on.
We’ve already covered this point in some of our previous articles, so we will not spend too much time on it today.
Decision-making process
Making decisions in business is tough and knowledge is your ultimate power. And CRM technologies make you much stronger. With Sales Cloud, you immediately get an up-to-the-minute view into your team’s performance and forecasts. You’ll be able to see top performers and allocate human resources more efficiently by giving the best prospects to the most efficient sales reps.
With predictive analytics, you can always be sure that your business is on the right track and adjust the course based on the actionable data.
Sales Cloud gives you a real-time picture of your business via customizable dashboards. You can build your own unique reports with specific parameters in a matter of minutes with a simple drag-and-drop interface and get immediate up-to-date data. These reports and dashboards will be available to your team right away anywhere in the world on every device.
New levels of agility
Now with all of the functions described and countless more available in Sales Cloud like file syncing and sharing, email integration and Visual Workflow extension, you can streamline all the core processes in your business within multiple departments, not just sales.
With an intuitive and user-friendly interface, your sales reps can see intelligence, detailed company info, and multiple leads on a single screen to build the pipeline, accelerating the process.
Get more leads and close more deals
Obviously, all of the Salesforce benefits described above are there for a simple reason, to increase sales. At the end of the day, by getting Sales Cloud, you give your team a powerful lead generation and management machine that lets sales reps and marketers in your organization make smarter decisions, improve customer acquisition, connect with partners and boost the opportunity-to-win ratio. Your company will be able to anticipate customer needs and react accordingly.
Sales reps get numerous significant benefits of Salesforce Sales Cloud CRM. By getting all the important data in one system, your team will have immediate access to the details on your team’s deals — stage, products, competition, quotes and more.
Impressive reporting possibilities
Data that your company captures from many different sources such as business software applications, CRM, social media tools, etc. is one of the most powerful assets a business can possess. However, if the data is not properly filtered, sorted, looked into, or is simply not actionable, it’s completely pointless.
Sales Cloud, on the other hand, enables you to run in-depth analyses of that data. If you mean to keep your data clean or eliminate every possible error from the data, then it will help in collating, tabulating, & organizing the data properly. Then the data is much easier to interpret.
Another strong point of Sales Cloud is that it allows organizations to keep track of who interacts with their company and how (through filing a contact form, sending an email, clicking on ads in social media). You can also run reports to check opportunities, interaction with leads & customers, customer service efforts, etc.
Shorter sales cycle
Companies are always looking to decrease their sales cycles. In that respect, Salesforce Sales Cloud offers a major helping hand – one of its most impressive features, “Macros”, helps businesses to automate manual tasks in bulk, so that their sales team are able to better concentrate on interacting with real-time customers, improving productivity and shortening the sales cycle.
Sales Cloud also helps to prioritize leads and opportunities. For instance, whenever you click on any of your leads; it displays the lead score and the reasons behind that score. Based on that score, the sales team can quickly make key decisions and take actions.
Lastly, Lightning Sales console enables companies to customize their dashboards in Salesforce, building them around what is vital for their business.
Salesforce Sales Cloud Features
What is Salesforce Sales Cloud practically speaking? If we were to list all of the Salesforce Sales Cloud features, we’d write an hour-long read. The following are the features that are most important:
Lead management
Salesforce Sales Cloud is able to track all the relevant information about your prospect. It allows you to see what the lead source is, shows information upon which you can make decisions and take further action. Besides, it assists you in tracking all your marketing campaigns across all channels.
Pipeline and forecast management
This one enables you to drive consistent revenues with greatly detailed forecasting and offers you an comprehensive view of your entire pipeline and business activities. With reliable data insights and predictive AI, it helps you make key decisions that ultimately are the main drivers for revenue.
Account and contact management
This feature allows you to have all the critical customer data at the palm of your hand, including the communication history, key contacts, and more. Additionally, it offers you a complete picture of your lead with the help of insights, deals they are involved in, and how to engage them.
Opportunity management
This Sales Cloud feature lets you focus on what is of most importance for the company. It highlights all the essential aspects like your competitors, what stage your deals are at, and what actions you can take to close those deals. It can also create polished sales quotes very efficiently, making your sales cycle streamlined and quick.
Process automation
Automate your company processes with the help of simplistic drag and drop mechanics. This feature allows you to design automated workflows and notifications for all types of deals. As the deals move through different stages, it auto-assigns the tasks, making the process easy, efficient and quick.
Reporting
This Sales Cloud feature makes reporting very intuitive and easy – you just need to drag and drop the fields, groups, filters, charts, and categories you want, and you’re done. Within seconds, you’re then getting a detailed report full of insightful data. In addition, you can monitor your sales reps’ performance with the help of dashboards and other sales activity instruments.
Data management
The AI-powered solution will help you uncover smarter business-critical insights, identify the potential clients and niches, and deliver the best opportunities. It also allows you to focus on the specific type of data which perfectly matches your business goals and requirements.
Salesforce Sales Cloud Pricing
There are 4 major packages to choose from when purchasing Salesforce Sales Cloud:
Essentials – $25 (per user per month, billed annually)
Professional – $75 (per user per month, billed annually)
Enterprise – $150 (per user per month, billed annually)
Unlimited – $300 (per user per month, billed annually)
All plans offer Account, Contact, Lead, and Opportunity Management and Email Integration with Gmail or Outlook, while such features as Sales Engagement, Sales Insights and 24/7 Support and Configuration Services are only included in the Unlimited package.
CRM Tools for Business at OMI
Any CRM software, no matter how good it might be, is just a tool that can only be as effective as people who operate it. And obviously, not even great solutions can always be a perfect fit for a company. Differences in workflow processes and poor optimization can stop you from utilizing the full potential of Sales Cloud. But at OMI we specialize in customizing CRM platform specifically for your business, creating one of a kind Sales Cloud B2B marketing automation solutions. We make sure that you will get every extension that plays to your strengths and will maximize your ROI. From project assessment, all the way through data migration to the integration of third-party software and continuous support, we will implement a Sales Cloud solution that will be completely unique to your business. By getting OMI onboard, you receive over two decades of professional expertise and a team of world-class professionals in the field of Sales Cloud implementation and Salesforce app development services. With us, you’ll gain a competitive advantage on the market and a trusted partner.